French President Emmanuel Macron. Photo: Collected

PARIS, France, Jan 24, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - French President Emmanuel Macron on 
Saturday vowed to speed up the legislative process for a social media ban on 
under-15s, with the goal of enacting it in September this year.

"I have asked the government to activate the accelerated procedure so it can 
go as quickly as possible," he said in a self-recorded video broadcast on BFM 
Television.

He said he wanted it to be "applied from the start of the next school year", 
in September.

French lawmakers have been debating the bill for such a ban, following in the 
footsteps of Australia, which last month became the first country to prohibit 
children under the age of 16 using such popular -- and addictive -- platforms 
as Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.

Their draft legislation is to be submitted to the French parliament on 
Monday.

Macron said that, on top of a ban on children under 15 accessing social 
media, he also backed a ban on pupils having on mobile phones in schools.

"The brains of our children and our adolescents are not for sale or for 
manipulating, not by US platforms, not by Chinese algorithms," the president 
said.